single

There would be no point in doing this on the ergometer. This one is really about getting used to high stroke rates in real conditions (wind, waves, chop, traffic, buoys, and wake). Anybody can get up to 40spm on the erg, but getting good boat speed at 38spm in a single is more difficult.

This is another one from my personal list of interesting workouts that I collected over the years. It says:

So three sets of 5 times 30 seconds of hard work, with mini rests that get longer for the higher stroke rates. Eight minutes rest between the sets. This is the first time I am doing it this season and I am not sure whether the stroke rates weren’t originally intended for the double or even the quad, so I lowered the target spm by 2.

The conditions: Alternating sun and a few drops of rain, light wind from the north (the nearby weather stations reported something else but in this hill country a weather station 5km away on the other side of the hill can report something entirely different), about 24 degrees C.

Warming up was uneventful. I did 3 10 stroke bursts at slightly higher stroke rate than my normal “warming up” bursts, and I took 3km of warming up instead of 2.

The first set was with slight tailwind, the second set with headwind and the final set with tailwind again. In the first interval of the second set, I had to suddenly steer in another direction because I was on a collision course with a tourist ferry. During the first set I thought I would not be able to survive the second and third sets, but the slightly longer rests combined by the fact that I really got used to the high rates were enough to save me.

I have removed the data for the mini rests as they are not interesting. In the comments I captured what CrewNerd reports me. In these short intervals it is slightly different from the excel spreadsheet. I guess it gives you a feel for the accuracy. The intervals were just 17 to 19 strokes long, and with one data point per second there are bound to be rounding errors.

Up at 3:20. To airport, catch flight to Brussels. Have Admin Board meeting (interesting part estimated to be around 3% of total content), lunch with board members (110% worth it but not for the sandwiches). Back to airport, catch flight to Vienna. Home at 21:45. Nobody there because Romana, Dominik & Lenka are at the Youth Nationals and Robin stays with my mother in law.

Surprisingly, I didn’t find time for a training.

Friday

At work. It dawned on me that I could have stayed the weekend in The Netherlands and visit some friends there … Next time plan better, Sander!

Afternoon training. The plan was to do Greg’s 7x1km in the double with Radek, but he is recovering from a cold. So we did 10k technique. Catch drills were very useful.

Home to empty house. In bed early.

Dominik made it to the semifinals by finishing third in his heat. Saturday’s semi will decide if he will row Final A or B on Sunday.

Lenka in the double also progressed by being 4th by a bow ball. She will row today and has to be third or fourth to make final B and first or second to make final A. Fifth and sixth place don’t row on Sunday.

Saturday part I

Up at 5:30 and drove to the club for the first workout. 7x1km done in 24/26/28/30/28/26/24 spm.

2000m warming up. I wasn’t sure about the rest intervals so I dialed up 3:00 rest. Turns out I should’ve used a longer rest interval.

Flat water. A slight breeze from the north causing ripples but no chop. Intervals 1, 2, 4, and 6 were rowed in the tailwind. All intervals from standing race start.

Data will follow later. Somehow the image upload refuses service this morning in the mobile WordPress app.

The first 28spm and the 30spm were rowed in 4:00. I lightened up on the pressure in the 30spm interval as I was getting tired and wanted to hit the prescribed stroke rates. Did I say I took very short rests? I barely rowed 250m, then turned around, a quick sip of water and then there were barely 15 seconds left to the starting command.

Session total 12km.

Now I am stretching in the gym and waiting for the mixed quad to arrive. A short row and then to the train station to catch a train to Prague and on to the race track.

A busy day at work. In the morning a visit from a new Vice President. In the afternoon an interview with a major Czech newspaper. The interview went well, but these things are draining. Our communications guy later told me this lady regularly does interviews with prime ministers and the likes. Glad I didn’t know it beforehand.

Anyway, I arrived at the lake tired and uninspired. This is a problem, because my training plan has a fixed set of workout types per week (steady state, intervals, race prep, etc) but I decide on the spot what kind of workout I will do, depending on how I feel and what I have done earlier in the week. My week starting on Monday, I usually do short intervals on that day, but this week that had been a fierce low rate row. I was hesitating between “long” intervals and “short” intervals.

First thing I did was checking the juniors and men’s training schedule on the notice board in the changing room. Hm, the Juniors had a 3x2km/2km rest at 24/26/28spm that seemed doable with my level of energy.

Unfortunately, when I launched I noticed that there was a sailing race going on in the bottom half of our lake. Doing 2kms would get me in the middle of the race in the final 750m. Rather not.

So I reverted to “Cheops”, the Pete Plan Pyramid session. But I allowed my self to rate down in the 750m and 1km sections.

No speed bursts during the warming up, just not feeling like it. Also, the weather was a transition between calm/cloudy and rainy, with random wind speed and direction changes making it difficult to do anything with decent form. Luckily, there was only a light chop.

The wind was still changing direction every 10 strokes or so, but it seemed to be calmer around Rokle,the upper part of our lake. So I dialled up the session on CrewNerd and started the first 250m with a race start. Start was good at 40spm, then quickly settling down for 30spm. Splits looking good at higher 1:40s or lower 1:50s.

About 15 strokes in I passed another single going in the other direction. It was my double partner Radek coming from Lodni Sporty. I wanted to discuss a training on Friday, so after the 250m I did a hard stop, stopped the session in CrewNerd, quick turn and rowed back to Rokle.

After that I knew of no other way to do the training than to restart the entire session. Well, I kind of enjoy those 250s anyway, so it wasn’t a big problem.

This time, with Radek on my tail, I managed a 1:49.0 average split at 32spm. Not bad.

Then a 500m from a rolling start. I focused on “swing” which enables me to keep the stroke rate high without too much effort. CrewNerd showed paces between 1:55 and 2:05 depending on the wind and reported a total time of 1:56.6 at 30spm, which I was happy with.

A few kids in sailing boats had ventured towards the 1000m mark, so I turned again to do the 750m towards Rokle. Doing this one in a calmer fashion, it turned out to be a 2:02.7 pace in 29spm.

Then the dreaded kilometer. I survived this one by counting strokes. One hundred and sixteen strokes at an average pace of 2:03.7, and 28spm.

The second 750m done in slightly calmer water but headwind. Again a 2:03.7 pace in 28spm.

I was now on the good side of the pyramid and as training usually does, my mental energy was slowly coming back to me. The 500m done in 1:58.6, 30spm and looking forward to the final 250m.

During the training the wind had definitely calmed down, and a few strokes before the start of the final 250m it started to rain heavily. I managed the 250m in 1:49.0 pace at 33spm, counting six sets of five strokes.

The rain was too cold so I had to stop and put on an additional layer before doing a cooling down.

The spreadsheet gives slightly different paces than CrewNerd, which is caused by rounding errors.

Sunday I did no training. The rowing club was closed because of long distance swimming championships, so we decided to make it a relax day.

Just a relax day, huh? Romana and I went to the spa resort that is close to the rowing club, and while driving there we were talking a bit about back pain and the back injury I had a few weeks ago. I have got feedback from different people that my back muscles are too tight and I should do something about it. Romana goes to massage regularly so she suggested I sign up for a massage session and see what that does.

OK.

Sounds like a good idea. I have been thinking about this already for a long time. Problem is, I am extremely ticklish. Always been. The other problem is that I have a pretty wide intimate space and always feel uncomfortable about unknown people entering it:

But it is time to bite the bullet. I am a fan of getting out of your comfort zone and I guess the only way to get over it is to learn how to deal with it when getting a back massage. I also imagined that if a sturdy masseur would work on my back it would rather hurt than tickle. I can handle pain.

So when we arrived I ordered that massage, and spent the time until my appointment by taking a sauna, then having a light lunch.

All relaxed and open to new experiences, I waited for the masseur to pick me up. Turns out the masseur was a she, a nice lady about half my age. I should have known. About all the staff in this resort is female and twenty-something.

This was a bit more out of my comfort zone than I expected.

Now I am normally not very prudish, but this was starting to get scary. Not to a normal person, but to me.

The lady asked me what I wanted to have massaged. I told her that I sometimes have problems with my back and would like to a massage. “OK,” she said. “Take off your sheet and lay down here.”

Again, I am normally not very prudish, but this also caught me by surprise. But after A, you have to be ready to say B. Right? So I did what she said. Slightly terrified now. And starting to sweat.

I am not an expert, but I have the feeling the massage was done well. She worked the muscles of my back thoroughly and I had the feeling I could relax and relieve the strain on those muscles. But of course there were moments where I would get a slight tickle response.

To me it was extremely controlled. Being my normal self, I would jump off the massage table, arms flailing and hysterically screaming. None of that. But of course I would not be relaxed.

The masseuse noticed of course. She “solved” it by saying “relax” in a soft voice, quite close to my ear. Right in that “intimate space” that I talked about above.

Anyway, probably much ado about nothing for normal people but it was quite an experience for me!

Still have to say that I did enjoy the massage and I do think I need to start seeing a masseur more regularly, but it will take time to get used to it and be comfortable with it.

Of course I told the whole story to Romana who just laughed.

Fierce steady state

Arriving at the lake this morning, the day starting at a chilly and humid 11C, I noticed that my temporary double partner Jiri was also launching. Usually, he starts his row when I am already cooling down, but today he had a lot of things to do and decided to start early.

We discussed a bit and discovered that both of us were doing steady state. Great. I like rowing next to somebody.

I knew there was a big risk that I would push too hard, but that I accepted that, and was actually looking forward to it. There has to be some fun in training as well, right?

Warming up and technique drills. Then off into a headwind for the first part of the steady state.

We were rowing next to each other and of course I was pushing a bit harder than normal. He’s 6:30 erg man, 82 kg heavy, so he should be fast. He gained half a length on my doing what I estimate to be 20spm. I was alternating 18/20/22spm in two minute intervals. He gained during the 18spm, but I gained back what I lost during the 22spm. Splits were faster than normal.

Turn at Sirka and same story back. He crabbed during the first 100m so he was rowing 30m behind me, but doing a 22spm he gained that back. At one point I looked at my phone and noticed I was doing 2:06 pace at 21spm!!

This continued all the way to Rokle where he finished one length ahead of me.

Silence for a minute or so. I took a glance at him and noticed he was breathing heavily, trying to disguise that. I was in a similar situation.

I took a recovery day. A full day of work until 10pm, only interrupted by dinner and a hot, relaxing bath. Still feeling tired from Sunday’s races.

Tuesday Morning

Looking forward to a planned L4, steady state session with 18spm, 20spm, 22spm, 24spm rate ladders. No difficulty getting up early. It was looking to become a nice sunny day. Temperatures have dropped more than 10 degrees since Sunday, to a nice maximum temperature of 21 degrees C. It was 15 degrees when I drove to the lake.

Quite some chop, so decided to row to the castle.

Rowing to the turning point, about 500m past the castle, I did 2x10min rate ladder (4min/3min/2min/1min in 18/20/22/24spm). Paces were not particularly fast but I tried to focus more on technique.

The lake was choppy, but the river part was perfect flat water with a thin layer of mist on top. It was so beautiful, I decided to take some pictures when I turned, and then again when I passed the castle.

Then I decided to skip the rate ladders and focus on technique. I did some technique drills on the way home. Rowing with pauses, mainly.

Won the B final in the double and qualified for the Youth Nationals. There were 4 boats in the B final and the first 2 would qualify. Lenka stroked this with the “lead from start to finish” tactics, winning by a few lengths. There was a nice fight for second place, with Hodonin rowing second place for 1000m, only to be overtaken in the final 500m by Otrokovice.

Good for Laura and her to experience rowing in the lead. They enjoyed this race. Qualification secured.

Romana almost got them disqualified for following the race in the coach launch. She was at a long distance from the racing lanes and didn’t shout any instructions. Still, at one point she was in front of the referee launch, so that was a concern. Luckily the referee was a reasonable person.

On to the single B final. Lenka was not looking forward to this one, rowed at noon in a 35 degree heat, with the quad only 2 hours later. Romana agreed that she would row it at a 25spm. In the end of the day Lenka rowed to (non-qualifying) 4th position, going up to 27spm in the heat of the fight.

She had a disappointing race in the quad. Their team had expectations to win, but in the end they were over-classed by 4 girls from LS Brno who are rowing at international level, and also Olomouc overtook them. A spark was missing here. I guess 3 races is quite a lot in these hot conditions.

Dominik

His race being at 4 o’clock, our son Dominik decided to spend most of the day swimming in the lake. Not exactly ideal race preparation but I wasn’t going to prevent him. He had qualified himself for Youth Nationals, and it would be torture to keep a 11 year old indoors for the sake of a rowing race. In hot summer weather like this, when you’re that age, you should be making fun by the water.

His 500m race was good for the first 250m, then he suddenly reduced pace. He also stopped 2 strokes before the finish line and had to be told to cross it. Came in last position.

I was really tired after that. Still had to walk around on the club helping various others getting on the water in time. Also, spent some time and energy discussing our line-up for the Masters Nationals and for Hazewinkel.

Being at 72.0 kg on my own scale I had to be careful eating and drinking.

Then, at 1pm, I hopped on the bicycle to ride to the LS Brno club house for the weigh in. My upper legs protested vehemently, so in the heat of the day it was a very hard 2km ride.

I weighed in at 71.6 kg on the official race scale.

I can be brief about this race. My plan was to hold 2:00 to 2:05 pace in the light headwind, but it turned out to be too ambitious. My legs just didn’t cooperate. I was rowing in the back with the referee boat and as I wasn’t out of breath I was able to speak to him but I just couldn’t push any harder for the pain in my legs.

Covered the course in 8:38 measured on CrewNerd. I can do that in a training, a couple of times.

The Championship of Morava is one of three regional championships that were held in the Czech Republic this weekend. Czech rowing is organised by rivers: Vltava (Moldau) which is mainly the Prague clubs plus South Bohemia, Labe (Elbe) which is all clubs north and west of Prague, plus Pardubice in East Bohemia, and Morava which is our region. Your club’s river is determined by the main river that your body of water is connected to.

The championships are closed for out-of-region clubs. The championships are important for the clubs overall national ranking, based on a system where you get 1 point per seat for a last place in the final, 2 points for beating one boat, etc. On these regional championships, clubs use the opportunity to put as many crews on the water as possible. For example, by putting a slow eight on the water, you get 8 points for being last, but your A boat will automatically have 8 points more because it will have beaten an extra boat.

For youth, these championships are a qualifying race for the National Championships. The first 8 boats are qualifying, so youth rowed heats on Saturday and Finals A and B on Sunday.

Saturday

Arriving at the club, I learned that one of our competitors in the double had withdrawn. With 6 boats left we would row the final directly on Sunday morning. No racing for me on Saturday.

So I took the single for a brief 6km. At 9am, it was already 29C and the expected maximum temperature for the day would be 36C. I did the 3x250m race prep workout that I have described in Friday’s blog.

Shortly after that, Lenka and Laura had their heat in the Girls 15/16yr double. They came in fourth, beating one boat, and didn’t qualify for Sunday’s A final. In the B final they would have to be first or second of four boats in order to qualify for the youth Nationals.

During the hottest part of the day the boys and I went swimming for an hour, mainly diving from the dock to cool down. It was great fun.

Lenka was rowing her single heat during mid day. There were some waves and there was a lot of heat, so race seemed to happen in slow-motion. The girls seemed to be doing 25spm. Lenka didn’t manage to qualify for the A final. She beat one girl and was rowing in the pack but she needed a third place. To be honest her motivation for the single is lower than for the bigger boats.

Then I sat in the club house doing some work.

Around 5pm, Dominik races his heat in the boys single (<12yr). He came in third place and qualified himself for the A final and thus also for the Youth Nationals. Goal accomplished.

Finally Romana and I took the double for a 5km row. After that I did a quick try out of the double with my temporary double partner Jiri for Sunday’s races. It was good we did this 4km round because we found out he had to move the rails and set the oarlock height a bit higher.

The day ended with a barbecue. I carefully weighed myself before, so I knew how much I could eat without jeopardizing my LW single final on Sunday.

Adding a few pictures from last week’s races in Prague.

Our Juniors in a comfortable leading position. Panorama of Prague in the backgroundOur Men’s eight in second place behind Dukla. Fantastic achievement!